--jks
> When Robert F. Welch died in 1985, the Birch Society had shrunk to less than
50,000 members. There then ensued an internal struggle over who would grab
thereins of the organization. The victors even alienated Welch's widow who
denounced the new leadership from her retirement home in Weston, MA. Magazine
subscriptions, often a close parallel to membership, fell from 50,000 to
fewerthan 20,000.